As the solar industry has expanded, the amount of solar panel manufacturers available in the market has grown significantly. Several different solar panel manufacturers are known to the user, both through solar installers and online.
However, at the top end of the solar market, only three brands dominate SunPower, LG Solar (or only LG for short), and Panasonic.
Homeowners often have difficulty deciding between them. How do you tell which of the three provides the highest quality and performance? Luckily, there are three main criteria you can use to compare various solar panels, namely accurately:
Now, let's Look at how each of those 3 top solar panel manufacturers stacks up. We'll be assessing each brand's latest flagship residential solar module: LG's NeON two, SunPower's A-Series, and Panasonic's HIT Series.
Warranties Of SunPower, LG, and Panasonic in comparison
There are two kinds of solar panel warranties: a power output warranty and a product warranty.
The product warranty covers the product if it fails because of a manufacturing defect or poor-quality components.
The power output warranty guarantees that the panel will produce a certain percentage of its rated power after a certain number of years.
Product warranty compared
LG, Panasonic, and SunPower all offer the identical product warranty on their solar panels: 25 years. This is significantly better than the business standard of ten years.
This extended item warranty coverage comes with the fact that solar panel failure is quite rare, meaning that all three brands provide buyers peace of mind.
Power Output Warranty Compared.
All three premium brands maintain their electricity output a lot better than average solar panels.
SunPower has a small advantage: they now ensure the lowest degradation of solar panels on the marketplace. That suggests that SunPower panels will provide you with somewhat more power output with every passing year than the other two manufacturers.
Panel Efficacy of SunPower, LG, And Panasonic In Comparison
The efficiency of a solar panel is the proportion of light hitting the board converted into energy. A solar panel with a higher efficacy will need less space to achieve the desired output.
The industry standard for solar panel efficiency is roughly 17%. LG, SunPower, and Panasonic all beat by a reasonable margin as their high-efficiency panels utilize the most effective solar cell technologies.
SunPower, specifically, has made a name for itself as the industry leader inefficiency. Their most efficient solar panel version, the A-Series, is also the world's most efficient solar panel for homes as of January 2021.
Temperature Coefficient (heat performance) of LG, SunPower, and Panasonic in comparison
The Temperature coefficient is the per cent decline in power output for each degree Celsius the panel gets over 25°C/77°F.
Like most electronic equipment, solar panels produce less energy than the warmer they become. And dark solar panels absorb plenty of heat, so their temperature will be a whole lot greater than the surrounding air temperature.
This makes the Temperature coefficient an excellent indicator of which panels will hold up best in real-world problems.
Panasonic has the lowest temperature coefficient and is consequently the most effective solar panel by this statistic. Their panels' power output will only reduce by 0.258% for every degree Celsius over 25°C/77°F.
Prices of SunPower, LG, and Panasonic In Comparison
Solar panel costs are generally measured by cost per watt. You can use this figure to discover the total cost of a solar panel system by multiplying it by the whole system size (i.e., 6 kW, or 6000 watts).
The price difference may not seem important, but it adds up when applied to a whole solar power system: a typical 6 kW system with LG Solar panels will be 240 less costly than a standard 6 kW system that uses SunPower panels.
Which premium solar panel is best overall?
There's no single panel that's fantastic for each solar system. Each brand provides a slightly different efficiency, warranty, temperature coefficient, and price.
If roof space is tight and money is not a problem, possibly opting for the slightly higher efficacy SunPower A-Series or SunPower X-Series is the greatest.
If you live somewhere where temperatures always stay very high, Panasonic modules deserve consideration because of their exceptional temperature coefficient (heat tolerance).
Meanwhile, LG solar panels remain famous for being a well-known electronics manufacturer that provides excellent value, one of the premium brands.
That said, there are no wrong choices from SunPower, LG, or Panasonic. Each one those high-quality names will perform correctly installed on your roof, and they are all backed with a 25-year warranty.
Furthermore, solar incentives are available irrespective of which solar panel manufacturer you choose: each homeowner can claim 26% of the system cost to deduce their federal taxation under the federal solar tax credit till 2023.